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Lombardi re-thinks the cloud model

Bugs trapped in time

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A re-engineered workflow build and management system for cloud-based systems has been delivered after four years' work by Lombardi Software.

The business-process-management specialist has released a version of its Teamwork BPM suite that lets you re-create historical events in systems based on open source and Java. Also added is support for Google's Web Toolkit (GWT).

The new Teamwork 7.0 repository will let you let capture instances of cloud-based applications, and to go back in time and re-run them for testing and ongoing management and maintenance.

"We are releasing a new process center that encourages very advanced techniques around versioning and source-code control of assets so, at the click of a button, I can create a snapshot of an application and go back in time and execute the application as it existed," he said.

According to Gilbert, Lombardi had to rethink the database underlying the repository to store and describe the models and properties associated with objects actually in the repository - a process that took four years.

The ability to take an application back in time is something ISVs have been adding to IDEs and tools in the non-cloud world. The forthcoming Visual Studio Team System 2010, for example, will feature what Microsoft calls "Tivo for debugging" that's being designed to improve testing and fixing by capturing and playing the exact conditions of an application when it fails.

Teamwork is part of Lombardi's suite for building business processes, and features workflow, events handling, embedded rule engine, and form builder, plus an integration component to tie into web services in addition to the new support for GWT. ®